Moving along the outside of the blackthorn alongside the path, on the Hadlow Estate side, seemed to be a good strategy for getting close to the bees and flies on the blossom, without having to kink my neck up too much.
On the second group of blackthorn (including the bunch by the start of the nature trail) I found a decent view of the Yellow Legged Burrowing Bee, Andrena flavipes.
At the third major group of blackthorns there was a suspicious looking bee, and sure enough it turned out to be my first sighting of the bee mimic Eristalis intricarius! I was really pleased to see this at last, and all the features checked out.
The humeri were clearly visible, the upper outer cross-vein was not re-entrant, the R4+5 vein was deeply looped, and the lower and upper outer cross veins were running in a smooth curve more or less continuously parallel to the rear wing margin, so this keyed out at Eristalini.
The two anterior veins R1 and R2+3 are joined into a short common vein before they reach the wing tip, and the scutellum is yellowish or brownish rather than black, so that puts it into the genus Eristalis.
No really obvious central black stripe down face, but maybe a smudgy version of one. The front two legs have partly or wholly dark tarsi, the sides of the thorax are not dusted at all and its obviously furry, very much like a bumblebee. This should make it either Eristalis intricarius or Eristalis anthophorinus. Side of the thorax definitely very black, and squamae possibly a bit darkened, so should be the known UK species Eristalis intricarius as opposed to the European species anthophorinus.
Just to be safe, the basal part of the tibiae is clearly and obviously pale. If the tibiae were dark I should instead have been looking at the other common bumble bee mimic, Merodon equestris, the large bulb fly.
This one was a male, the more variable gender in this species!
On the same group of blackthorns several honeybees, Apis mellifera were working away, easily identified by their hairy eyes.
And then there was I think an Andrena
And then I came across a Southern Vestal Cuckoo Bumblebee, Bombus vestalis.
This is my first bluebell for the year - at the moment the bluebells look as though they are about two weeks ahead of normal years!
On the second group of blackthorn (including the bunch by the start of the nature trail) I found a decent view of the Yellow Legged Burrowing Bee, Andrena flavipes.
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